Religion and Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

There is no doubt that religion plays a role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The current conflict began in the 20th century (Vox 2018). The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world's longest-running and most controversial conflicts (Vox 2018). The whole conflict is driven by religion and nationalism. For more than 100 years the Jews and Arabs have been fighting in the land of Israel. Jews and Arabs are fighting over the same piece of land (Eldad 2018). Despite the fact that the Jews and Arab Muslims date their cases to the land back several thousand years ago, the mid twentieth century is when the current conflict began.

Jews escaping mistreatment in Europe needed to build up a national country in what was then an Arab-and Muslim-larger part region in the Ottoman and later British Empire. The Arabs opposed, seeing the land as legitimately theirs. An early United Nations intend to give each gathering piece of the land failed, and Israel and the encompassing Arab countries battled a few wars over the domain (Vox 2018).

Despite the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a conflict over land and could be resolved through international law, religion plays an important factor in this conflict. Fanatical religious groups use their religions to perpetuate the conflict, while peaceful religious groups use the teachings of their religions to call for peace (If Americans Knew 2018). Religion is at the core of the conflict for many reasons. There are multiple religious factors that are relevant to Islam and Judaism which dictate the role of religion as the main factor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is also including the purity of holy sites and the apocalyptic narratives of both religions. They are harmful to any potential for peace they may have between the two sides. Extreme religious Zionists in Israel have increasingly seen themselves as protectors and definers of the how the Jewish state should be, and are very stringent when it comes to any concessions to the Arabs (Mostafa 2018). On the other hand, Islamist groups in Palestine and elsewhere in the Islamic world support the necessity of saving the "holy territories and sites for religious reasons, and preach violence and hatred against Israel and the Jewish people (Mostafa 2018). Religion-based rumors are being spread throughout the media and also social media. This plays a big part in the conflict. Rumors can never be good because it creates problems. These rumors being spread makes the tension even worse between these two sides. Examples include rumors about a "Jewish Plan to destroy al Aqsa mosque and build the Jewish third temple on its remnants, and, on the other side rumors that Muslims hold the annihilation of Jews at the core of their belief (Mostafa 2018). When the other sides hear about this they are going to get angry and upset and that's going to create a problem because they aren't happy with the information they have been told, when it may not even be true. In addition, worsening socio-economic conditions in the Arab and Islamic world contribute to the growth of religious radicalism, pushing a larger percentage of youth towards fanaticism, and religion-inspired politics (Mostafa 2018).

Although religion plays a big role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there's no doubt that nationalism also plays a big role in the conflict as well. In the 1920's the Palestinian municipal went through a process of historic gestation (Jazeera 2018). This was a very touch process which continued through 1967 (Jazeera 2018 Due to the British Mandate and the development of the Yishuv, the Palestinian national character developed as a response against this. In 1920 neighborhood Arab viciousness started (Copeland 2018). Israel's War of Independence, and the exodus of approximately 700,000 Palestinians an event Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or catastrophe not only remains a central problem of the continuing conflict, but further cemented a shared sense of Palestinian history, memory, and suffering central to the formation of a national movement (Copeland 2018). The 1967 war led Israel to win on the sixth day and resulting of them having control of the West Bank and also the control of the Gaza strip. These were homes to a large number of Palestinians and this led a good amount of them to leave in 1948 (Copeland 2018) and soon their complaints increased and so did the conflicts. In the early 1990s, Israel and the Palestinians began peace negotiations, which many people hoped would lead to a resolution of the ongoing conflict. Their first approach to resolving the conflict is a two-state solution in which Palestinians would establish a state alongside Israel. For a number of reasons, this approach has failed.

The primary approach to solving the conflict today is a so-called "two-state solution (Vox 2018). The "two-state solution would made Palestine an independent state in Gaza and also most of the West Bank. Israel would be left the rest of the land. The Jews and Arabs are still unsure how they will make it work. If the "two-state solution doesn't work out, another alternative is a "one-state solution. In this case, all of the land will be established as Israel or Palestine. A one-state solution would cause a lot more chaos and problems. If they ended up going with a one-state solution, they would have more problems than they could solve.

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